DUBAI — Zyfra Group, Finnish-Russian AI and IIoT solutions developer for industries has successfully tested an electrical submersible pump (ESP) software unit, designed to enhance the efficiency of oil extraction by boosting oil well production rates by 1.5 per cent without any additional capital investment.

The ESP software unit is now operational for more than three months in 500 oil wells in Western Siberia, Russia, which makes an additional profit of $2 million and the growth in production is 1.5 percent.

It is equipped with artificial intelligence to provide recommendations based on historical Big Data analysis. The unit recommends a mode of well operation that will ensure maximum oil flow rate for a certain period of time and provides for stable operation during that period by analyzing current frequency, gauged oil flow rate, periods of intermittent pump operation and other operating parameters.

The highest demand for the ESP software unit is expected from Russia, US, China as well as from the Gulf markets.

“Scientists regularly claim that the era of oil will end soon and that readily available hydrocarbons are almost exhausted. The digitalization of the oil and gas industry will help simplify extraction of hard-to-recover oil while at the same time extending the lifespan of the oilfield by more than one decade,” said Dmitry Krikunov, Zyfra’s AI team leader in the oil & gas sector.

“The primary motivation for investing in digitalization is to improve efficiency. According to Gartner, the ‘smart oil deposit’ concept could help oil companies to cut costs by 5 percent and enhance production volumes by 2 percent. CERA calculates that ‘smart oil and gas deposits’ could cut production costs by 1–6 percent, shrink oil-well downtime by 1- 4 percent and reduce labor intensity by up to 25 percent,” said Dmitry Krikunov.

With its new AI equipped ESP software unit, Zyfra aims to capture a sizeable share of the global market of digital solutions for the upstream oil & gas industry valuing $366 million. The total global market in this sector is valued at up to $8.9 billion.

Zyfra has cumulatively earned more than $3 million from India-related deals. The company plans to enhance its presence in the Indian market and reach the target of $50 million in deals by 2021. — SG